Guidance

Countryside Stewardship statement of priorities: Mendip Hills (NCA141)

Updated 21 May 2021

Applies to England

Choosing priorities

Countryside Stewardship is a competitive scheme and funding is limited. Not all eligible applicants will be offered a grant. This guide will help applicants choose the options that will increase their chance of success.

Countryside Stewardship applications are scored. Both top priorities and other priorities score points. Applicants should select at least one top priority. Choosing other priorities will improve an application’s score.

Biodiversity: top priorities

Priority habitats

Applicants should choose land management options and capital works that maintain, restore and create priority habitats and support priority species that depend on these habitats.

Priority habitats to be maintained include:

• lowland heathland
• lowland calcareous grassland
• lowland dry acid grassland
• lowland meadows
• traditional orchards
• ancient and native woodland
• calaminarian grassland
• riparian habitats associated with priority rivers and lakes
• arable field margins

Priority habitats (especially projects to enlarge existing sites or help join up habitat networks) to be restored include:

• lowland heathland
• lowland calcareous grassland
• lowland dry acid grassland
• lowland meadows
• traditional orchards
• ancient and native woodland
• calaminarian grassland
• riparian habitats associated with priority rivers and lakes

Priority habitat creation to extend or link priority habitat to increase connectivity and reduce fragmentation. In particular, create priority habitat that will also contribute significantly to improvements in:

• water quality

• air quality
• flood and coastal risk management

Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)

Restore or maintain SSSIs that include features eligible for options. This includes options that will reduce diffuse water and air pollution effects.

Priority species

Managing priority habitats will create the habitat needs for many of the priority species associated with this area. In particular by providing such essential elements as bare ground, areas of scrub and varied sward structures which will help these species thrive.

This area also has a number of priority species that need tailored management and advice. Applicants should choose land management options and capital works that meet the specific needs of the following priority species:

• small pearl-bordered fritillary
• marsh fritillary
• greater horseshoe bat
• lesser horseshoe bat
• Anaptychia ciliaris subsp. ciliaris (a lichen)
• greater water parsnip
• lapwing
• Duke of Burgundy

Woodland bird assemblage

Parts of this area are targeted for their variety of woodland birds. Natural England has assessed the area as being nationally significant where 4 or more of the following species occur:

• lesser spotted woodpecker
• tree pipit
• redstart
• pied flycatcher

• spotted flycatcher

• wood warbler
• marsh tit
• lesser redpoll
• hawfinch

In these areas applicants should choose land management options and capital works that maintain or enhance conditions for woodland birds.

Arable plant assemblage

This area has cultivated land that may contains nationally threatened and declining populations of arable plants. The correct management of these areas will help these species thrive and help their populations increase.

Wild pollinator and farm wildlife package

This package is a collection of scheme options that benefit wild pollinators, farmland birds (such as grey partridge, tree sparrow and yellowhammer) and other farm wildlife (such as arable plants, great crested newt, bats and brown hare).

The package is voluntary, but an application will have a greater chance of success if options from the package are chosen.

The options provide the essential resources (especially year-round food, shelter and nesting places) that wild pollinators, birds and farm wildlife need to survive and reproduce. These include:

• sowing nectar flower mixes
• increasing flowers on grassland
• sowing winter bird food mixes
• managing hedgerows and other key farm habitats (like ponds and ditches)

Mid Tier

Applicants can choose from groups of options for different farm types – arable, mixed or pastoral. Typically, the options should be applied over a minimum of 3% to 5% of the farmed land on the holding.

Higher Tier

An application will have a greater chance of success if the holding has already helped wildlife thrive under previous schemes. For example, where a Higher Level Stewardship agreement is coming to an end, and from other areas where priority farmland species are present.

Applicants can choose from similar groups of options, tailored to their holding, in consultation with a Natural England adviser. Typically, the options will cover a minimum of 5% to 10% of farmed land to target a broader range of farmland species and habitats.

Applying the right combination of these options over at least 3% of the farmed land or a holding will bring benefits to farm wildlife.

Water: top priorities

Water quality

Applicants should consider options and capital works in the water quality options table that address:

• phosphates, nitrate, sediment, faecal bacteria, pesticides, nutrients causing eutrophication in the Bristol Avon Rural, North Somerset Streams and Brue and Axe catchments
• groundwater drinking sources close to Cheddar, Egford, the Forum Springs (Yelling Mill/Windsor Hill) and Hillhead springs
• bathing water at Weston-Super-Mare affected by faecal bacteria
• the Somerset Levels and Moors site designation for its habitats and SSSI and North Somerset Levels and Moors SSSI catchments including Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors, Biddle Street and Puxton Moors SSSIs affected by phosphate, nitrate and sediment
• surface water drinking water sources from Chew Valley Lake and Blagdon Lake affected by pesticides and nutrients causing eutrophication
• surface water drinking water sources from Cheddar Reservoir which is affected by phosphate, nitrates causing problems with algae

These options help improve water quality by controlling the source or the movement of potential pollutants, including:

• nutrients from fertilisers, manures and organic materials
• sediment from soil erosion and runoff
• faecal bacteria from both manures and livestock
• pesticides from their use and disposal

Flood and coastal risk management

An application will have a greater chance of success if applicants select options for flood and coastal risk issues in the priority areas of:

• River Banwell, upstream of Banwell, where the watercourse is non main river
• Lox Yeo, upstream of the M5 motorway where the drainage comes off the steep slopes of the Mendips
• the River Chew and tributaries, upstream of Chew Valley lake
• The Yeo (Congresbury), upstream of Compton Martin where it is non main river and falls steeply off the Mendip Hills
• Cam Brook and tributaries, upstream of Litton where it is non main river and falls steeply off the Mendip Hills
• Wellow Brook and tributaries, upstream of Chilcompton where it is non main river and falls steeply off the Mendip Hills

Applicants should choose options from the flood risk table that:

• intercept and retain rain water
• reduce the amount and rate of surface water runoff
• reduce soil erosion

Actions to address flood risk within large parts of the Mendip Hills NCA are highlighted in the Somerset 20-year Flood Action Plan.

Historic environment: top priorities

Historic environment

Applicants should choose active management which ensures the long-term survival of historic environment features and protects them against damage and decay. In particular some of the biggest land management threats in this area are from:

• arable cultivation
• scrub/tree growth
• visitor erosion

The following features are a high priority for active management in this area:

• designated features – archaeological features of national significance scheduled monuments and registered parks and gardens
• designated and undesignated traditional farm buildings and non-domestic historic buildings on holdings
• undesignated historic and archaeological features of high significance which are part of the Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England (SHINE)

Applicants should consider options and capital works to:

• revert archaeological sites under cultivation to permanent grass
• reduce damaging cultivation and harvesting practices through minimum tillage or direct drilling where this provides a suitable level of protection
• remove scrub and bracken from archaeological or historic features
• maintain below-ground archaeology under permanent uncultivated vegetation or actively manage earthworks, standing stones and structures as visible above-ground features
• maintain and restore historic water management systems, including those associated with water meadows and designed water bodies
• restore historic buildings that are assessed as a priority in the area
• maintain or restore Registered Parks and Gardens, including structures or features that contribute to the original design intentions or feel of the parkland or provide for their biodiversity and amenity value

Woodland: top priorities

Woodland management

Climate change, pests (such as deer and grey squirrels) and various diseases threaten woodland. Applicants’ proposals will need to address such threats where present.

Certain types of woodland are a high priority for bringing into management, including:

• protected woodland – those designated for their national biodiversity value
• priority woodland habitat – other unmanaged broadleaved woodland
• priority species – target woodland within priority areas for woodland priority species
• planted ancient woodland site (PAWS) restoration – conversion of conifer plantations on ancient woodland sites to broadleaf woodland within priority woodland habitat networks
• United Kingdom Forestry Standard – unmanaged conifer woodland within catchments subject to eutrophication and acidification, both to reduce pressures on the water environment and improve biodiversity

All management should comply with the United Kingdom Forestry Standard and other relevant guidance such as Managing ancient and native woodland in England.

Woodland planting

High priority objectives for new woodland planting include:

• biodiversity – planting to buffer and link existing woodlands and other semi-natural open habitats within priority woodland habitat networks
• water quality – planting designed to reduce and intercept diffuse pollution from agriculture
• flood risk – planting designed to increase infiltration of heavy rain into the ground, reduce erosion, or slow the flow of floodwaters on floodplains

Landscape: top priorities

Each application is likely to include a range of landscape features whose restoration should form an important part of agreements. Top priority in the area is the maintenance and restoration of features that will enhance the pattern and scale of the landscape and add to the area’s ‘sense of place’.

Top priorities in this area for landscape are:

• hedgerows
• hedgerow trees
• stone walls
• permanent grassland

Multiple environmental benefits

Applicants should look to provide for multiple priorities by selecting options that achieve multiple environmental benefits.

In this area, the greatest opportunity to achieve multiple objectives is by:

• choosing soil and water options including buffer strips, grassland creation and low input grassland management in the Banwell, Lox Yeo, the River Chew, The Yeo (Congresbury) and Wellow Brook catchments, to improve water quality, support flood risk management, reduce soil erosion, enhance priority habitats and support priority species
• restoring and enhancing traditional boundary features to intercept surface run-off, increase soil infiltration rates and reduce soil erosion. These measures will help to reduce the volumes of silt entering local rivers and mitigate flood risk in the adjacent Somerset Levels and Moors and the Chew Valley area, whilst strengthening wildlife corridors and enhancing biodiversity and local landscape character
• restoring or creating legume and herb-rich grassland to expand existing areas of priority habitat in the western part of the Mendip Hills, connecting fragmented grasslands in the eastern part of the Mendip Hills to form a coherent habitat network that is more resilient to climate change in locations where this will benefit biodiversity, pollinating insects buffer watercourses and improve soil condition to reduce soil erosion, run-off rates, sedimentation, improve water quality and reduce flood risk in the adjacent Somerset Levels and Chew Valley
• enhancing existing woodlands and expanding woodland cover in locations where well managed woodland can benefit landscape character, biodiversity, water quality and flood risk, in addition to wider climate change, economic and social benefits – key locations include:
  • the area adjacent to the Somerset Levels and Moors NCA
  • the Chew Valley catchment

Other priorities

Applicants should select at least one of the top priorities. However, applicants can also select other priorities, as this will increase the score of the application.

Historic environment

The following historic environment features are lower priorities:

• maintain designated and undesignated traditional farm buildings
• undesignated SHINE features of medium and low significance
• priority undesignated historic parklands

Woodland management

Woodlands not included in the top priority categories listed above are a lower priority for management but may still be supported.

Woodland planting

Areas are prioritised for new planting based on their potential to create biodiversity and water benefits.

Woodland planting schemes are scored depending on where the proposed scheme is in relation to the opportunity maps for woodland planting in England and how well the planting design will benefit biodiversity and water.

Other priorities for appropriately designed biodiversity schemes exist across the whole of England. Opportunities for new woodland planting for water only exist in certain parts of England.

Climate change

By choosing land management options and capital works which support the management of the vulnerable features and habitats listed in this statement, including where vulnerabilities are increased by climate change, applicants will support the resilience of biodiversity, water and other scheme priorities to the impacts of climate change, which is a cross-cutting objective of the scheme.